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'-'73»7L63  Iiincoxrij   nuxctham 

~^909  i'iiCo  and  second  inaugural 

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WASHINGTON 

QOVERNMENT   PRINTING   OFFICE 

1909 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  OF  THE  PRESIDENT 
OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  ON  THE  4TH  OF 
MARCH,  1861  jT         >r  *sr  rtf  jT 

Senate  — Ex.    Doc.    No.    1,  Special    Session,    March   8,   1861 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

FELLOW-CITIZENS   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES: 
In  compliance  with  a  custom  as  old  as  the  Government  itself,  I 
appear  before  you  to  address  you  briefly,  and  to  take  in  your  pres- 
ence the  oath  prescribed  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
to  be  taken  by  the  President  "before  he  enters  on  the  execution  of  his 
oflSce." 

I  do  not  consider  it  necessary  at  present  for  me  to  discuss  those  matters 
of  administration  about  which  there  is  no  special  anxiety  or  excitement. 

Apprehension  seems  to  exist  among  the  people  of  the  Southern  States 
that  by  the  accession  of  a  Republican  Administration  their  property 
and  their  peace  and  personal  security  are  to  be  endangered.  There 
has  never  been  any  reasonable  cause  for  such  apprehension.  Indeed, 
the  most  ample  evidence  to  the  contrary  has  all  the  while  existed  and 
been  open  to  their  inspection.  It  is  found  in  nearly  all  the  published 
speeches  of  him  who  now  addresses  you.  I  do  but  quote  from  one  of 
those  speeches  when  I  declare  that  "I  have  no  purpose,  directly  or 
indirectly,  to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  States  where 
it  exists.  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful  right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  incli- 
nation to  do  so."  Those  who  nominated  and  elected  me  did  so  with 
full  knowledge  that  I  had  made  this  and  many  similar  declarations,  and 
had  never  recanted  them.  And,  more  than  this,  they  placed  in  the 
platform  for  my  acceptance,  and  as  a  law  to  themselves  and  to  me, 
the  clear  and  emphatic  resolution  which  I  now  read: 

Resolved,  That  the  maintenance  inviolate  of  the  rights  of  the  States,  and  especially 
the  right  of  each  State  to  order  and  control  its  own  domestic  institutions  according 
to  its  own  judgment  exclusively,  is  essential  to  that  balance  of  power  on  which  the 
perfection  and  endurance  of  our  political  fabric  depend,  and  we  denounce  the  law- 
less invasion  by  armed  force  of  the  soil  of  any  State  or  Territory,  no  matter  under 
what  pretext,  as  among  the  gravest  of  crimes. 

I  now  reiterate  these  sentiments;  and,  in  doing  so,  I  only  press  upon 
the  pubUc  attention  the  most  conclusive  evidence  of  which  the  case  is 
susceptible,  that  the  property,  peace,  and  security  of  no  section  are  to 
be  in  anjTvise  endangered  by  the  now  incoming  Administration.  I  add, 
too,  that  all  the  protection  which,  consistently  with  the  Constitution  and 
the  laws,  can  be  given,  will  be  cheerfully  given  to  all  the  States  when 
lawfully  demanded,  for  whatever  cause — as  cheerfully  to  one  section  as 
to  another. 

(5) 


There  is  much  controversy  about  the  deUvering  up  of  fugitives  from 
service  or  labor.  The  clause  I  now  read  is  as  plainly  written  in  the 
Constitution  as  any  other  of  its  provisions : 

No  person  held  to  sendee  or  labor  in  one  State,  under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping 
into  another,  shall,  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged 
from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom 
such  service  or  labor  may  be  due. 

It  is  scarcely  questioned  that  this  provision  was  intended  by  those 
who  made  it  for  the  reclaiming  of  what  we  call  fugitive  slaves;  and  the 
intention  of  the  law-giver  is  the  law.  All  members  of  Congress  swear 
their  support  to  the  whole  Constitution — to  this  provision  as  much  as 
to  any  other.  To  the  proposition,  then,  that  slaves,  whose  cases  come 
within  the  terms  of  this  clause,  "shall  be  delivered  up,"  their  oaths  are 
unanimous.  Now,  if  they  would  make  the  effort  in  good  temper,  could 
they  not,  with  nearly  equal  unanimity,  frame  and  pass  a  law  by  means 
of  which  to  keep  good  that  tmanimous  oath? 

There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  whether  this  clause  should  be 
enforced  by  national  or  by  State  authority;  but  surely  that  difference 
is  not  a  ver}'  material  one.  If  the  slave  is  to  be  surrendered,  it  can  be  of 
but  little  consequence  to  him,  or  to  others,  by  which  authority  it  is  done. 
And  should  any  one,  in  any  case,  be  content  that  his  oath  shall  go  imkept, 
on  a  merely  unsubstantial  controversy  as  to  how  it  shall  be  kept? 

Again,  m  any  law  upon  this  subject,  ought  not  all  the  safeguards  of 
liberty  kno-ivn  in  civilized  and  humane  jurisprudence  to  be  introduced, 
so  that  a  free  man  be  not,  in  any  case,  surrendered  as  a  slave?  And 
might  it  not  be  well  at  the  same  time  to  provide  by  law  for  the  enforce- 
ment of  that  clause  in  the  Constitution  which  guarantees  that  "the  citi- 
zen of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of 
citizens  in  the  several  States?" 

I  take  the  official  oath  to-day  with  no  mental  reservations,  and  with 
no  purpose  to  construe  the  Constitution  or  laws  by  any  hypercritical 
rules.  And  while  I  do  not  choose  now  to  specify  particular  acts  of 
Congress  as  proper  to  be  enforced,  I  do  suggest  that  it  will  be  much 
safer  for  all,  both  in  official  and  private  stations,  to  conform  to  and 
abide  by  all  those  acts  which  stand  unrepealed,  than  to  violate  any  of 
them,  trusting  to  find  impimity  in  having  them  held  to  be  unconsti- 
tutional. 

It  is  seventy-two  years  since  the  first  inauguration  of  a  President 
under  our  National  Constitution.  During  that  period  fifteen  different 
and  greatly-distinguished  citizens  have,  in  succession,  administered  the 
Executive  branch  of  the  Government.  They  have  conducted  it  through 
many  perils,  and  generally  with  great  success.  Yet,  with  all  this  scope 
of  precedent,  I  now  enter  upon  the  same  task  for  the  brief  constitutional 
term  of  four  years  under  great  and  peculiar  difiBculty.  A  disruption  of 
the  Federal  Union,  heretofore  only  menaced,  is  now  formidably 
attempted. 


I  hold  that,  in  contemplation  of  universal  law,  and  of  the  Constitution, 
the  Union  of  these  States  is  perpetual.  Perpetuity  is  implied,  if  not 
expressed,  in  the  fundamental  law  of  all  National  Governments.  It  is 
safe  to  assert  that  no  Government  proper  ever  had  a  provision  in  its 
organic  law  for  its  own  termination.  Continue  to  execute  all  the  express 
provisions  of  our  National  Constitution,  and  the  Union  will  endure  for- 
ever— it  being  impossible  to  destroy  it  except  by  some  action  not  pro- 
vided for  in  the  instrument  itself. 

Again,  if  the  United  States  be  not  a  Government  proper,  but  an  asso- 
ciation of  States  in  the  nature  of  contract  merely,  can  it,  as  a  contract, 
be  peaceabl)'  unmade  by  less  than  all  the  parties  who  made  it?  One 
party  to  a  contract  may  violate  it — break  it,  so  to  speak;  but  does  it 
not  require  all  to  lawfully  rescind  it? 

Descending  from  these  general  principles,  we  find  the  proposition  that, 
in  legal  contemplation,  the  Union  is  perpetual,  confirmed  by  the  history 
of  the  Union  itself.  The  Union  is  much  older  than  the  Constitution. 
It  was  formed,  in  fact,  by  the  Articles  of  Association  in  1774.  It  was 
matured  and  continued  by  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  1776. 
It  was  further  matured,  and  the  faith  of  all  the  then  thirteen  States 
expressly  plighted  and  engaged  that  it  should  be  perpetual,  by  the  Articles 
of  Confederation  in  1778.  And,  finally,  in  1787,  one  of  the  declared 
objects  for  ordaining  and  establishing  the  Constitution  was  "to  form  a 
more  perfect  union." 

But  if  destruction  of  the  Union  by  one,  or  by  a  part  only,  of  the  States, 
be  lawfully  possible,  the  Union  is  less  perfect  than  before  the  Constitu- 
tion, having  lost  the  vital  element  of  perpetuity. 

It  follows,  from  these  views,  that  no  State,  upon  its  own  mere  motion, 
can  lawfully  get  out  of  the  Union;  that  resolves  and  ordinances  to  that 
effect  are  legally  void;  and  that  acts  of  violence,  within  any  State  or 
States,  against  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  are  insurrectionary  or 
revolutionary,  according  to  circumstances. 

I,  therefore,  consider  that,  in  view  of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws, 
the  Union  is  unbroken,  and,  to  the  extent  of  my  ability,  I  shall  take  care, 
as  the  Constitution  itself  expressly  enjoins  upon  me,  that  the  laws  of  the 
Union  be  faithfully  executed  in  all  the  States.  Doing  this  I  deem  to  be 
only  a  simple  duty  on  my  part;  and  I  shall  perform  it,  so  far  as  practi- 
cable, unless  my  rightful  masters,  the  American  people,  shall  withhold 
the  requisite  means,  or,  in  some  authoritative  manner,  direct  the  con- 
trary. I  trust  this  will  not  be  regarded  as  a  menace,  but  only  as  the 
declared  purpose  of  the  Union  that  it  will  constitutionally  defend  and 
maintain  itself. 

In  doing  this  there  needs  to  be  no  bloodshed  or  violence;  and  there 

shall  be  none,  unless  it  be  forced  upon  the  national  authority.     The 

power  confided  to  me  will   be  used   to  hold,  occupy,  and  possess  the 

property  and  places  belonging  to  the  Government,  and  to  collect  the 

72096—09 — 2 


8 

duties  and  imposts;  but,  beyond  what  may  be  necessary  for  these  objects, 
there  will  be  no  invasion,  no  using  of  force  against  or  among  the  people 
anywhere.  Where  hostiUty  to  the  United  States,  in  any  interior  locality, 
shall  be  so  great  and  universal  as  to  prevent  competent  resident  citizens 
from  holding  the  federal  offices,  there  will  be  no  attempt  to  force  obnox- 
ious strangers  among  the  people  for  that  object.  While  the  strict  legal 
right  may  exist  in  the  Government  to  enforce  the  exercise  of  these  offices, 
the  attempt  to  do  so  would  be  so  irritating,  and  so  nearly  impracticable 
withal,  that  I  deem  it  better  to  forego,  for  the  time,  the  uses  of  such 
offices. 

The  mails,  unless  repelled,  will  continue  to  be  furnished  in  all  parts 
of  the  Union.  So  far  as  possible,  the  people  everywhere  shall  have  that 
sense  of  perfect  security  which  is  most  favorable  to  calm  thought  and 
reflection.  The  course  here  indicated  will  be  followed,  unless  current 
events  and  experience  shall  show  a  modification  or  change  to  be  proper, 
and  in  every  case  and  exigency  my  best  discretion  will  be  exercised, 
according  to  circumstances  actually  existing,  and  with  a  view  and  a  hope 
of  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  national  troubles,  and  the  restoration  of  fra- 
ternal sympathies  and  affections. 

That  there  are  persons  in  one  section  or  another  who  seek  to  destroy 
the  Union  at  all  events,  and  are  glad  of  any  pretext  to  do  it,  I  will 
neither  affirm  nor  deny;  but  if  there  be  such,  I  need  address  no  word  to 
them.     To  those,  however,  who  really  love  the  Union,  may  I  not  speak? 

Before  entering  upon  so  grave  a  matter  as  the  destruction  of  our 
national  fabric,  with  all  its  benefits,  its  memories,  and  its  hopes,  would  it 
not  be  wise  to  ascertain  precisely  why  we  do  it?  Will  you  hazard  so 
desperate  a  step  while  there  is  any  possibility  that  any  portion  of  the  ills 
you  fly  from  have  no  real  existence?  Will  you,  while  the  certain  ills 
you  fly  to  are  greater  than  all  the  real  ones  you  fly  from — will  you  risk 
the  commission  of  so  fearful  a  mistake? 

All  profess  to  be  content  in  the  Union,  if  all  constitutional  rights  can 
be  maintained.  Is  it  true,  then,  that  any  right,  plainly  written  in  the 
Constitution,  has  been  denied?  I  think  not.  Happily  the  human  mind 
is  so  constituted  that  no  party  can  reach  to  the  audacity  of  doing  this. 
Think,  if  you  can,  of  a  single  instance  in  which  a  plainly  written  provision 
of  the  Constitution  has  ever  been  denied.  If,  by  the  mere  force  of  num- 
bers, a  majority  should  deprive  a  minority  of  any  clearly  written  con- 
stitutional right,  it  might,  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  justify  revolution — 
certainly  would,  if  such  right  were  a  vital  one.  But  such  is  not  our  case. 
All  the  vital  rights  of  minorities  and  of  individuals  are  so  plainly  assured 
to  them  by  affirmations  and  negations,  guarantees  and  prohibitions,  in 
the  Constitution,  that  controversies  never  arise  concerning  them.  But 
no  organic  law  can  ever  be  framed  with  a  provision  specifically  applicable 
to  every  question  which  may  occur  in  practical  administration.  No 
foresight  can  anticipate,  nor  any  document  of  reasonable  length  contain. 


express  provisions  for  all  possible  questions.  Shall  fugitives  from  labor 
be  surrendered  by  national  or  by  State  authority?  The  Constitution 
does  not  expressly  say.  May  Congress  prohibit  slavery  in  the  Terri- 
tories? The  Constitution  does  not  expressly  say.  Mttst  Congress  protect 
slavery  in  the  Territories?     The  Constitution  does  not  expressly  say. 

From  questions  of  this  class  spring  all  our  constitutional  controver- 
sies, and  we  divide  upon  them  into  majorities  and  minorities.  If  the 
minority  will  not  acquiesce,  the  majority  must,  or  the  Government  must 
cease.  There  is  no  other  alternative;  for  continuing  the  Government  is 
acquiescence  on  one  side  or  the  other.  If  a  minority  in  such  case  will 
secede  rather  than  acquiesce,  they  make  a  precedent  which  in  turn  will 
divide  and  ruin  them ;  for  a  minority  of  their  own  will  secede  from  them 
whenever  a  majority  refuses  to  be  controlled  by  such  minority.  For 
instance,  why  may  not  any  portion  of  a  new  confederacy,  a  year  or  two 
hence,  arbitrarily  secede  again,  precisely  as  portions  of  the  present  Union 
now  claim  to  secede  from  it?  All  who  cherish  disunion  sentiments  are 
now  being  educated  to  the  exact  temper  of  doing  this. 

Is  there  such  perfect  identity  of  interests  among  the  States  to  com- 
pose a  new  Union  as  to  produce  harmony  only  and  prevent  renewed 
secession? 

Plainly,  the  central  idea  of  secession  is  the  essence  of  anarchy.  A 
majority  held  in  restraint  by  constitutional  checks  and  limitations,  and 
always  changing  easily  with  deliberate  changes  of  popular  opinions  and 
sentiments,  is  the  only  true  sovereign  of  a  free  people.  Whoever  rejects 
it  does,  of  necessity,  fly  to  anarchy  or  to  despotism.  Unanimity  is 
impossible;  the  rule  of  a  minority,  as  a  permanent  arrangement,  is 
wholly  inadmissible;  so  that,  rejecting  the  majority  principle,  anarchy 
or  despotism  in  some  form  is  all  that  is  left. 

I  do  not  forget  the  position  assumed  by  some,  that  constitutional 
questions  are  to  be  decided  by  the  Supreme  Court;  nor  do  I  deny  that 
such  decisions  must  be  binding,  in  any  case,  upon  the  parties  to  a  suit, 
as  to  the  object  of  that  suit,  while  they  are  also  entitled  to  very  high 
respect  and  consideration  in  all  parallel  cases  by  all  other  departments 
of  the  Government.  And  while  it  is  obviously  possible  that  such  deci- 
sion may  be  erroneous  in  any  given  case,  still  the  evil  effect  following  it, 
being  limited  to  that  particular  case,  with  the  chance  that  it  may  be 
overruled,  and  never  become  a  precedent  for  other  cases,  can  better  be 
borne  than  could  the  evils  of  a  different  practice.  At  the  same  time, 
the  candid  citizen  must  confess  that  if  the  policy  of  the  Government 
upon  vital  questions,  affecting  the  whole  people,  is  to  be  irrevocably 
fixed  by  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  instant  they  are  made,  in 
ordinary  litigation  between  parties  in  personal  actions,  the  people  will 
have  ceased  to  be  their  own  rulers,  having  to  that  extent  practically 
resigned  their  government  into  the  hands  of  that  eminent  tribunal.  Nor 
is  there  in  this  view  any  assault  upon  the  Court  or  the  Judges.     It  is  a 


lO 

duty  from  which  they  may  not  shrink  to  decide  cases  properly  brought 
before  them,  and  it  is  no  fault  of  theirs  if  others  seek  to  turn  their  deci- 
sions to  political  purposes. 

One  section  of  our  coimtry  believes  slavery  is  right,  and  ought  to  be 
extended,  while  the  other  believes  it  is  wrong,  and  ought  not  to  be 
extended.  This  is  the  only  substantial  dispute.  The  fugitive  slave 
clause  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  law  for  the  suppression  of  the  foreign 
slave  trade,  are  each  as  well  enforced,  perhaps,  as  any  law  can  ever  be 
in  a  community  where  the  moral  sense  of  the  people  imperfectly  supports 
the  law  itself.  The  great  body  of  the  people  abide  by  the  dn.-  legal  obli- 
gation La  both  cases,  and  a  few  break  over  in  each.  This,  I  think,  cannot 
be  perfectly  cured;  and  it  would  be  worse  in  both  cases  after  the  separa- 
tion of  the  sections  than  before.  The  foreign  slave  trade,  now  imperfectly 
suppressed,  would  be  ultimately  revived  without  restriction  in  one  sec- 
tion; while  fugitive  slaves,  now  only  partially  surrendered,  would  not  be 
surrendered  at  all,  by  the  other. 

Phvsically  speaking,  we  cannot  separate.  We  cannot  remove  our 
respective  sections  from  each  other,  nor  build  an  impassable  wall  between 
them.  A  husband  and  wife  may  be  divorced,  and  go  out  of  the  presence 
and  beyond  the  reach  of  each  other;  but  the  dififerent  parts  of  our  country 
cannot  do  this.  They  cannot  but  remain  face  to  face;  and  intercourse, 
either  amicable  or  hostile,  must  continue  between  them.  Is  it  possible, 
then,  to  make  that  intercourse  more  advantageous  or  more  satisfactory- 
after  separation  than  before?  Can  aliens  make  treaties  easier  than  friends 
can  make  laws?  Can  treaties  be  more  faithfully  enforced  between  aliens 
than  laws  can  among  friends?  Suppose  you  go  to  war,  you  cannot  fight 
always;  and  when,  after  much  loss  on  both  sides,  and  no  gain  on  either, 
you  cease  fighting,  the  identical  old  questions,  as  to  terms  of  intercourse, 
are  again  upon  you. 

This  country,  with  its  institutions,  belongs  to  the  people  who  inhabit  it. 
Whenever  they  shall  grow  wear>-  of  the  existing  Government  they  can 
exercise  their  constitutional  right  of  amending  it,  or  their  revolutionary 
right  to  dismember  or  overthrow  it.  I  cannot  be  ignorant  of  the  fact  that 
many  worthy  and  patriotic  citizens  are  desirous  of  ha^'ing  the  National 
Constitution  amended.  While  I  make  no  recommendation  of  amend- 
ments, I  fully  recognize  the  rightful  authority  of  the  people  over  the 
whole  subject,  to  be  exercised  in  either  of  the  modes  prescribed  in  the 
instrument  itself;  and  I  should,  under  existing  circumstances,  favor 
rather  than  oppose  a  fair  opportunity  being  afforded  the  people  to  act 
upon  it.  I  will  venture  to  add  that  to  me  the  convention  mode  seems 
preferable,  in  that  it  allows  amendments  to  originate  with  the  people 
themselves,  instead  of  only  permitting  them  to  take  or  reject  propositions 
originated  by  others,  not  especially  chosen  for  the  purpose,  and  which 
might  not  be  precisely  such  as  they  would  wish  to  either  accept  or  refuse. 
I  understand  a  proposed  amendment  to  the  Constitution — which  amend- 


II 

ment,  however,  I  have  not  seen — has  passed  Congress,  to  the  effect  that 
the  Federal  Government  shall  never  interfere  with  the  domestic  institu- 
tions of  the  States,  including  that  of  persons  held  to  service.  To  avoid 
misconstruction  of  what  I  have  said,  I  depart  from  my  purpose  not  to 
speak  of  particular  amendments  so  far  as  to  say  that,  holding  such  a  pro- 
vision to  now  be  implied  constitutional  law,  I  have  no  objection  to  its 
being  made  express  and  irrevocable. 

The  Chief  Magistrate  derives  all  his  authority  from  the  people,  and 
they  have  conferred  none  upon  him  to  fix  terms  for  the  separation  of  the 
States.  The  people  themselves  can  do  this  also  if  they  choose;  but  the 
Executive,  as  such,  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  His  duty  is  to  administer 
the  present  Government,  as  it  came  to  his  hands,  and  to  transmit  it, 
unimpaired  by  him,  to  his  successor. 

Why  should  there  not  be  a  patient  confidence  in  the  ultimate  justice 
of  the  people?  Is  there  any  better  or  equal  hope  in  the  world?  In  our 
present  differences  is  either  party  without  faith  of  being  in  the  right? 
If  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  with  His  eternal  truth  and  justice, 
be  on  your  side  of  the  North,  or  on  yours  of  the  South,  that  truth  and 
that  justice  will  surely  prevail  by  the  judgment  of  this  great  tribunal 
of  the  American  people. 

By  the  frame  of  the  Government  under  which  we  live,  this  same  people 
have  wisely  given  their  public  servants  but  little  power  for  mischief; 
and  have,  with  equal  wisdom,  provided  for  the  return  of  that  little  to 
their  own  hands  at  very  short  intervals.  While  the  people  retain  their 
virtue  and  vigilance,  no  Administration,  by  any  extreme  of  wickedness  or 
folly,  can  very  seriously  injure  the  Government  in  the  short  space  of 
four  years. 

My  countrymen,  one  and  all,  think  calmly  and  well  upon  this  whole 
subject.  Nothing  valuable  can  be  lost  by  taking  time.  If  there  be  an 
object  to  hurry  any  of  you,  in  hot  haste,  to  a  step  which  you  would  never 
take  deliberately,  that  object  will  be  frustrated  by  taking  time;  but  no 
good  object  can  be  frustrated  by  it.  Such  of  you  as  are  now  dissatisfied, 
still  have  the  old  Constitution  unimpaired,  and,  on  the  sensitive  point, 
the  laws  of  your  own  framing  under  it;  while  the  new  Administration 
will  have  no  immediate  power,  if  it  would,  to  change  either.  If  it  were 
admitted  that  you  who  are  dissatisfied  hold  the  right  side  in  the  dispute, 
there  still  is  no  single  good  reason  for  precipitate  action.  IntelUgence, 
patriotism,  Christianity,  and  a  firm  reliance  on  Him  who  has  never  yet 
forsaken  this  favored  land,  are  still  competent  to  adjust,  in  the  best  way, 
all  our  present  difficulty. 

In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen,  and  not  in  mine,  is 
the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war.  The  Government  will  not  assail  you. 
You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors.  You 
have  no  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to  destroy  the  Government,  while  / 
shall  have  the  most  solemn  one  to  "preserve,  protect,  and  defend  it." 


12 

I  am  loth  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends.  We  must  not 
be  enemies.  Though  passion  may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our 
bonds  of  affection.  The  mystic  chords  of  memorj',  stretching  from  every 
battle-field  and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and  hearth-stone,  all 
over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again 
touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature. 


MESSAGE  OF  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES  TO  THE  TWO  HOUSES 
OF  CONGRESS  AT  THE  COMMENCEMENT 
OF  THE  FIRST  SESSION  OF  THE  THIRTY- 
SEVENTH  CONGRESS       ssr       s«r       sT       sT 

Senate  — Ek.   Doc.    No.  1,  37th  Congrress.  1st  session.  July  5,  1S61 


MESSAGE. 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  SENATE  AND  HoUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES: 
Having  been  convened  on  an  extraordinary  occasion,  as  au- 
thorized by  the  Constitution,  your  attention  is  not  called  to  any 
ordinary  subject  of  legislation. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  presidential  term,  four  months  ago, 
the  functions  of  the  federal  government  were  found  to  be  generally 
suspended  within  the  several  States  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Ala- 
bama, Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Florida,  excepting  only  those  of  the 
Post  Office  Department. 

Within  these  States  all  the  forts,  arsenals,  dock-yards,  custom-houses, 
and  the  like,  including  the  movable  and  stationary  property  in  and 
about  them,  had  been  seized,  and  were  held  in  open  hostility  to  this 
government,  excepting  only  Forts  Pickens,  Taylor,  and  Jefferson,  on 
and  near  the  Florida  coast,  and  Fort  Sumter,  in  Charleston  harbor. 
South  Carolina.  The  forts  thus  seized  had  been  put  in  improved  condi- 
tion; new  ones  had  been  built,  and  armed  forces  had  been  organized, 
and  were  organizing,  all  avowedly  with  the  same  hostile  purpose. 

The  forts  remaining  in  the  possession  of  the  federal  government  in 
and  near  these  States  were  either  besieged  or  menaced  by  warlike  prepa- 
rations, and  especially  Fort  Sumter  was  nearly  surrounded  by  well- 
protected  hostile  batteries,  with  guns  equal  in  quality  to  the  best  of 
its  own,  and  outnumbering  the  latter  as  perhaps  ten  to  one.  A  dis- 
proportionate share  of  the  federal  muskets  and  rifles  had  somehow  found 
their  way  into  these  States,  and  had  been  seized  to  be  used  against  the 
government.  Accumulations  of  the  public  revenue,  lying  within  them, 
had  been  seized  for  the  same  object.  The  navy  was  scattered  in  distant 
seas,  leaving  but  a  very  small  part  of  it  within  the  immediate  reach  of 
the  government.  Officers  of  the  federal  army  and  navy  had  resigned 
in  great  numbers;  and  of  those  resigning,  a  large  proportion  had  taken 
up  arms  against  the  government.  Simultaneously,  and  in  connexion 
with  all  this,  the  purpose  to  sever  the  Federal  Union  was  openly  avowed. 
In  accordance  with  this  purpose,  an  ordinance  had  been  adopted  in 
each  of  these  States,  declaring  the  States,  respectively,  to  be  separated 
from  the  National  Union.  A  fonnula  for  instituting  a  combined  govern- 
ment of  these  States  had  been  promulgated;  and  this  illegal  organiza- 
tion, in  the  character  of  confederate  States,  was  already  invoking  recog- 
nition, aid,  and  intervention,  from  foreign  Powers. 

(15) 
72096—09 — 3 


i6 

Finding  this  condition  of  things,  and  beUeving  it  to  be  an  imperative 
duty  upon  the  incoming  Executive  to  prevent,  if  possible,  the  consum- 
mation of  such  attempt  to  destroy  the  Federal  Union,  a  choice  of  means 
to  that  end  became  indispensable.  This  choice  was  made,  and  was 
declared  in  the  inaugural  address.  The  policy  chosen  looked  to  the 
exhaustion  of  all  peaceful  measures,  before  a  resort  to  any  stronger 
ones.  It  sought  only  to  hold  the  public  places  and  property  not  already 
wrested  from  the  government,  and  to  collect  the  revenues;  relying  for 
the  rest,  on  time,  discussion,  and  the  ballot-box.  It  promised  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  mails,  at  government  expense,  to  the  very  people  who 
were  resisting  the  government;  and  it  gave  repeated  pledges  against 
any  disturbance  to  any  of  the  people,  or  any  of  their  rights.  Of  all  that 
which  a  President  might  constitutionally,  and  justifiably,  do  in  such  a 
case,  everything  was  forborne,  without  which,  it  was  believed  possible 
to  keep  the  government  on  foot. 

On  the  5th  of  March,  (the  present  incumbent's  first  full  day  in  office,)  a 
letter  of  Major  Anderson,  commanding  at  Fort  Sumter,  written  on  the 
28th  of  February,  and  received  at  the  War  Department  on  the  4th  of 
March,  was,  by  that  department,  placed  in  his  hands.  This  letter 
expressed  the  professional  opinion  of  the  writer,  that  re-inforcements 
could  not  be  thrown  into  that  fort  within  the  time  for  his  relief,  rendered 
necessary  by  the  Umited  supply  of  provisions,  and  with  a  view  of  holding 
possession  of  the  same,  with  a  force  of  less  than  twenty  thousand  good  and 
well-disciplined  men.  This  opinion  was  concurred  in  by  all  the  officers  of 
his  command,  and  their  memoranda  on  the  subject,  were  made  enclosures 
of  Major  Anderson's  letter.  The  whole  was  immediately  laid  before 
Lieutenant  General  Scott,  who  at  once  concurred  with  lilajor  Anderson 
in  opinion.  On  reflection,  however,  he  took  full  time,  consulting  with 
other  officers,  both  of  the  army  and  navy,  and,  at  the  end  of  four  days, 
came  reluctantly,  but  decidedly,  to  the  same  conclusion  as  before.  He 
also  stated  at  the  same  time  that  no  such  sufficient  force  was  then  at 
the  control  of  the  government,  or  could  be  raised  and  brought  to  the 
ground  within  the  time  when  the  pro\nsions  in  the  fort  would  be 
exhausted.  In  a  purely  military  point  of  view,  this  reduced  the  duty  of 
the  administration  in  the  case,  to  the  mere  matter  of  getting  the  gar- 
rison safely  out  of  the  fort. 

It  was  believed,  however,  that  to  so  abandon  that  position,  under  the 
circumstances,  would  be  utterly  ruinous;  that  the  necessity  under  which 
it  was  to  be  done  would  not  be  fully  understood;  that  by  many,  it  would 
be  construed  as  a  part  of  a  voluntary  policy ;  that  at  home,  it  would  dis- 
courage the  friends  of  the  Union,  embolden  its  adversaries,  and  go  far 
to  insure  to  the  latter,  a  recognition  abroad;  that,  in  fact,  it  would  be 
our  national  destruction  consummated.  This  could  not  be  allowed. 
Stan'ation  was  not  yet  upon  the  garrison ;  and  ere  it  would  be  reached, 
Fort  Pickens  might  be  re-enforced.     This  last  would  be  a  clear  indication 


17 

of  policy,  and  would  better  enable  the  country  to  accept  the  evacuation 
of  Fort  Sumter,  as  a  military  necessity.  An  order  was  at  once  directed 
to  be  sent  for  the  landing  of  the  troops  from  the  steamship  Brooklyn, 
into  Fort  Pickens.  This  order  could  not  go  by  land,  but  must  take  the 
longer  and  slower  route  by  sea.  The  first  return  news  from  the  order 
was  received  just  one  week  before  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter.  The  news 
itself  was,  that  the  officer  commanding  the  Sabine,  to  which  vessel  the 
troops  had  been  transferred  from  the  Brooklyn,  acting  upon  some  quasi 
armistice  of  the  late  administration,  (and  of  the  existence  of  which  the 
present  administration,  up  to  the  time  the  order  was  despatched,  had 
only  too  vague  and  uncertain  rumors  to  fix  attention,)  had  refused  to 
land  the  troops.  To  now  re-enforce  Fort  Pickens,  before  a  crisis  would 
be  reached  at  Fort  Sumter,  was  impossible — rendered  so  by  the  near 
exhaustion  of  provisions  in  the  latter-named  fort.  In  precaution  against 
such  a  conjuncture,  the  government  had,  a  few  days  before,  commenced 
preparing  an  expedition,  as  well  adapted  as  might  be,  to  relieve  Fort 
Sumter,  which  expedition  was  intended  to  be  ultimately  used,  or  not, 
according  to  circumstances.  The  strongest  anticipated  case  for  using  it 
was  now  presented;  and  it  was  resolved  to  send  it  forward.  As  had 
been  intended,  in  this  contingency,  it  was  also  resolved  to  notify  the 
governor  of  South  Carolina,  that  he  might  expect  an  attempt  would  be 
made  to  provision  the  fort;  and  that,  if  the  attempt  should  not  be 
resisted,  there  would  be  no  efi'ort  to  throw  in  men,  arms,  or  ammunition, 
without  further  notice,  or  in  case  of  an  attack  upon  the  fort.  This  notice 
was  accordingly  given;  whereupon  the  fort  was  attacked,  and  bom- 
barded to  its  fall,  without  even  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  provisioning 
expedition. 

It  is  thus  seen  that  the  assault  upon,  and  reduction  of.  Fort  Sumter, 
was,  in  no  sense,  a  matter  of  self  defence  on  the  part  of  the  assailants. 
They  well  knew  that  the  garrison  in  the  fort  could,  by  no  possibility, 
commit  aggression  upon  them.  They  knew — they  were  expressly  noti- 
fied— that  the  giving  of  bread  to  the  few  brave  and  hungry  men  of  the 
garrison,  was  all  which  would  on  that  occasion  be  attempted,  unless 
themselves,  by  resisting  so  much,  should  provoke  more.  They  knew 
that  this  government  desired  to  keep  the  garrison  in  the  fort,  not  to 
assail  them,  but  merely  to  maintain  visible  possession,  and  thus  to  pre- 
serve the  Union  from  actual  and  immediate  dissolution — trusting,  as 
herein  before  stated,  to  time,  discussion,  and  the  ballot-box,  for  final 
adjustment;  and  they  assailed,  and  reduced  the  fort,  for  precisely  the 
reverse  object — to  drive  out  the  visible  authority  of  the  federal  Union, 
and  thus  force  it  to  immediate  dissolution.  That  this  was  their  object, 
the  Executive  well  understood;  and  having  said  to  them,  in  the  inaugu- 
ral address,  "You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  yourselves  the 
aggressors,"  he  took  pains,  not  only  to  keep  this  declaration  good,  but 
also  to  keep  the  case  so  free  from  the  power  of  ingenious  sophistry,  as 


1 8 

that  the  world  should  not  be  able  to  misunderstand  it.  By  the  afifair  at 
Fort  Sumter,  with  its  surrounding  circumstances,  that  point  was  reached. 
Then,  and  thereby,  the  assailants  of  the  government,  began  the  conflict 
of  arms,  without  a  gun  in  sight,  or  in  expectancy  to  return  their  fire, 
save  only  the  few  in  the  fort,  sent  to  that  harbor,  years  before,  for  their 
own  protection,  and  still  ready  to  give  that  protection  in  whatever  was 
la\\-ful.  In  this  act,  discarding  all  else,  they  have  forced  upon  the  coun- 
try, the  distinct  issue:  "Immediate  dissolution  or  blood." 

And  this  issue  embraces  more  than  the  fate  of  these  United  States. 
It  presents  to  the  whole  family  of  man  the  question,  whether  a  con- 
stitutional republic,  or  democracy — a  government  of  the  people,  by 
the  same  people — can,  or  cannot,  maintain  its  territorial  integrity  against 
its  own  domestic  foes.  It  presents  the  question,  whether  discontented 
individuals,  too  few  in  numbers  to  control  administration,  according  to 
organic  law,  in  any  case,  can  always,  upon  the  pretences  made  in  this 
case,  or  on  any  other  pretences,  or  arbitrarily,  without  any  pretence, 
break  up  their  government,  and  thus  practically  put  an  end  to  free 
government  upon  the  earth.  It  forces  us  to  ask :  "  Is  there,  in  all  repub- 
lics, this  inherent  and  fatal  weakness?"  "ilust  a  government,  of  neces- 
sity, be  too  strong  for  the  liberties  of  its  own  people,  or  too  weak  to 
maintain  its  own  existence?" 

So  vdewing  the  issue,  no  choice  was  left  but  to  call  out  the  war  power 
of  the  government;  and  so  to  resist  force,  employed  for  its  destruction, 
by  force,  for  its  preser\-ation 

The  call  was  made,  and  the  response  of  the  country  was  most  gratify- 
ing, surpassing  in  unanimity,  and  spirit,  the  most  sanguine  expectation. 
Yet,  none  of  the  States  commonly  called  slave  States,  except  Delaware, 
gave  a  regiment  through  regular  State  organization.  A  few  regiments 
have  been  organized  mthin  some  others  of  those  States  by  indi\adual 
enterprise,  and  received  into  the  government  ser\dce.  Of  course,  the 
seceded  States,  so  called,  (and  to  which  Texas  had  been  joined  about 
the  time  of  the  inauguration,)  gave  no  troops  to  the  cause  of  the  Union. 
The  border  States,  so  called,  were  not  uniform  in  their  action;  some  of 
them  being  almost  for  the  Union,  while  in  others — as  Mrginia,  North 
Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  Arkansas — the  Union  sentiment  was  nearly 
repressed,  and  silenced.  The  course  taken  in  A'irginia  was  the  most 
remarkable — perhaps  the  most  important.  A  convention,  elected  by 
the  people  of  that  State  to  consider  this  very  question  of  disrupting  the 
Federal  Union,  was  in  session  at  the  capital  of  Virginia  when  Fort 
Sumter  fell.  To  this  body  the  people  had  chosen  a  large  majority  of 
professed  Union  men.  Almost  immediately  after  the  fall  of  Sumter, 
many  members  of  that  majority  went  over  to  the  original  disunion 
minority,  and,  with  them,  adopted  an  ordinance  for  withdrawing  the 
State  from  the  Union.  Whether  this  change  was  wrought  b)'  their  great 
approval  of  the  assault  upon  Sumter,  or  their  great  resentment  at  the  gov- 


19 

emment's  resistance  to  that  assault,  is  not  definitely  known.  Although 
they  submitted  the  ordinance,  for  ratification,  to  a  vote  of  the  people, 
to  be  taken  on  a  day  then  somewhat  more  than  a  month  distant,  the 
convention,  and  the  legislature,  (which  was  also  in  session  at  the  same 
time  and  place,)  with  leading  men  of  the  State,  not  members  of  either, 
immediately  commenced  acting  as  if  the  State  were  already  out  of  the 
Union.  They  pushed  military  preparations  vigorously  forward  all  over 
the  State.  They  seized  the  United  States  armory  at  Harper's  Ferry, 
and  the  navy  yard  at  Gosport,  near  Norfolk.  They  received — perhaps 
invited — into  their  State  large  bodies  of  troops,  with  their  warlike 
appointments,  from  the  so-called  seceded  States.  They  formally  entered 
into  a  treaty  of  temporary  alliance,  and  co-operation  with  the  so-called 
"Confederate  States,"  and  sent  members  to  their  Congress  at  Mont- 
gomery. And,  finally,  they  permitted  the  insurrectionary  government 
to  be  transferred  to  their  capital  at  Richmond. 

The  people  of  Virginia  have  thus  allowed  this  giant  insurrection  to 
make  its  nest  within  her  borders;  and  this  government  has  no  choice 
left  but  to  deal  with  it  where  it  finds  it.  And  it  has  the  less  regret,  as 
the  loyal  citizens  have,  in  due  form,  claimed  its  protection.  Those  loyal 
citizens  this  government  is  bound  to  recognize,  and  protect,  as  being 
Virginia. 

In  the  border  States,  so  called — in  fact,  the  middle  States — there  are 
those  who  favor  a  policy  which  they  call  "armed  neutraUty:"  that  is, 
an  arming  of  those  States  to  prevent  the  Union  forces  passing  one  way, 
or  the  disunion  the  other,  over  their  soil.  This  would  be  disunion  com- 
pleted. Figuratively  speaking,  it  would  be  the  building  of  an  impass- 
able wall  along  the  line  of  separation — and  yet,  not  quite  an  impassable 
one;  for,  under  the  guise  of  neutrality,  it  would  tie  the  hands  of  the 
Union  men,  and  freely  pass  supplies  from  among  them  to  the  insurrec- 
tionists, which  it  could  not  do  as  an  open  enemy.  At  a  stroke,  it  would 
take  all  the  trouble  off  the  hands  of  secession,  except  only  what  proceeds 
from  the  external  blockade.  It  would  do  for  the  disunionists  that  which, 
of  all  things,  they  most  desire — feed  them  well,  and  give  them  disunion 
without  a  struggle  of  their  own.  It  recognizes  no  fideUty  to  the  Consti- 
tution, no  obligation  to  maintain  the  Union;  and  while  very  many  who 
have  favored  it  are,  doubtless,  loyal  citizens,  it  is,  nevertheless,  very 
injurious  in  effect. 

Recurring  to  the  action  of  the  government,  it  may  be  stated  that,  at 
first,  a  call  was  made  for  seventy-five  thousand  miUtia;  and  rapidly  fol- 
lowing this,  a  proclamation  was  issued  for  closing  the  ports  of  the  insur- 
rectionary districts  by  proceedings  in  the  nature  of  blockade.  So  far  all 
was  believed  to  be  strictly  legal.  At  this  point  the  insurrectionists 
armounced  their  purpose  to  enter  upon  the  practice  of  privateering. 

Other  calls  were  made  for  volunteers  to  serve  three  years,  unless 
sooner  discharged,  and  also  for  large  additions  to  the  regular  array  and 
73096 — 09 — 4 


20 

navy.  These  measures,  whether  strictly  legal  or  not,  were  ventured 
upon,  under  what  appeared  to  be  a  popular  demand,  and  a  public 
necessity;  trusting  then,  as  now,  that  Congress  would  readily  ratify 
them.  It  is  believed  that  nothing  has  been  done  beyond  the  constitu- 
tional competency  of  Congress. 

Soon  after  the  first  call  for  militia,  it  was  considered  a  duty  to  author- 
ize the  commanding  general,  in  proper  cases,  according  to  his  discretion, 
to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  or,  in  other  words, 
to  arrest  and  detain,  without  resort  to  the  ordinary  processes  and  forms 
of  law,  such  individuals  as  he  might  deem  dangerous  to  the  public 
safety.  This  authority  has  purposely  been  exercised  but  very  sparingly. 
Nevertheless,  the  legality  and  propriety  of  what  has  been  done  under  it 
are  questioned,  and  the  attention  of  the  country  has  been  called  to 
the  proposition  that  one  who  is  sworn  to  "take  care  that  the  laws  be 
faithfully  executed,"  should  not  himself  violate  them.  Of  course  some 
consideration  was  given  to  the  questions  of  power,  and  propriety,  before 
this  matter  was  acted  upon.  The  whole  of  the  laws  which  were  required 
to  be  faithfully  executed,  were  being  resisted,  and  failing  of  execution  in 
nearly  one-third  of  the  States.  Must  they  be  allowed  to  finally  fail  of 
execution,  even  had  it  been  perfectly  clear,  that  by  the  use  of  the  means 
necessary  to  their  execution,  some  single  law,  made  in  such  extreme 
tenderness  of  the  citizen's  liberty,  that  practically,  it  relieves  more  of  the 
guilty  than  of  the  innocent,  should,  to  a  very  limited  extent,  be  violated? 
To  state  the  question  more  directly,  are  all  the  laws  but  one  to  go  unexe- 
cuted, and  the  government  itself  go  to  pieces,  lest  that  one  be  violated  ? 
Even  in  such  a  case,  would  not  the  official  oath  be  broken,  if  the  gov- 
ernment should  be  overthrown,  when  it  was  believed  that  disregarding 
the  single  law,  would  tend  to  preserve  it?  But  it  was  not  believed  that 
this  question  was  presented.  It  was  not  believed  that  any  law  was 
violated.  The  provision  of  the  Constitution  that  "the  privilege  of  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  suspended  unless  when,  in  cases  of 
rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  may  require  it,"  is  equivalent 
to  a  provision — is  a  provision — that  such  privilege  may  be  suspended 
when,  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  does  require  it. 
It  was  decided  that  we  have  a  case  of  rebellion,  and  that  the  pubhc 
safety  does  require  the  qualified  suspension  of  the  privilege  of  the  writ 
which  was  authorized  to  be  made.  Now  it  is  insisted  that  Congress,  and 
not  the  Executive,  is  vested  with  this  power.  But  the  Constitution 
itself  is  silent  as  to  which,  or  who,  is  to  exercise  the  power;  and  as  the 
provision  was  plainly  made  for  a  dangerous  emergency,  it  cannot  be 
believed  the  framers  of  the  instrument  intended  that,  in  every  case,  the 
danger  should  run  its  course,  until  Congress  could  be  called  together; 
the  very  assembling  of  which  might  be  prevented,  as  was  intended  in 
this  case,  by  the  rebellion. 

No  more  extended  argument  is  now  offered,  as  an  opinion,  at  some 
length,  will  probably  be  presented  by  the  Attorney  General.     Whether 


21 

there  shall  be  any  legislation  upon  the  subject,  and  if  any,  what,  is 
submitted  entirely  to  the  better  judgment  of  Congress. 

The  forbearance  of  this  government  had  been  so  extraordinary,  and 
so  long  continued,  as  to  lead  some  foreign  nations  to  shape  their  action 
as  if  they  supposed  the  early  destruction  of  our  National  Union  was 
probable.  While  this,  on  discovery,  gave  the  Executive  some  con- 
cern, he  is  now  happy  to  say  that  the  sovereignty  and  rights  of  the 
United  States  are  now  everywhere  practically  respected  by  foreign 
powers;  and  a  general  sympathy  with  the  country  is  manifested  through- 
out the  world. 

The  reports  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury,  War,  and  the  Navy, 
will  give  the  information  in  detail  deemed  necessary,  and  convenient  for 
your  deliberation,  and  action;  while  the  Executive,  and  all  the  depart- 
ments, will  stand  ready  to  supply  omissions,  or  to  communicate  new 
facts,  considered  important  for  you  to  know. 

It  is  now  recommended  that  you  give  the  legal  means  for  making  this 
contest  a  short  and  a  decisive  one;  that  you  place  at  the  control  of 
the  government,  for  the  work,  at  least  four  hundred  thousand  men,  and 
four  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  That  number  of  men  is  about  one- 
tenth  of  those  of  proper  ages  within  the  regions  where,  apparently,  all 
are  willing  to  engage;  and  the  sum  is  less  than  a  twenty-third  part  of  the 
money  value  owned  by  the  men  who  seem  ready  to  devote  the  whole. 
A  debt  of  six  hundred  millions  of  dollars  now,  is  a  less  sum  per  head, 
than  was  the  debt  of  our  revolution  when  we  came  out  of  that  struggle; 
and  the  money  value  in  the  country  now,  bears  even  a  greater  proportion 
to  what  it  was  then,  than  does  the  population.  Surely  each  man  has  as 
strong  a  motive  now,  to  preserve  our  liberties,  as  each  had  then,  to  establish 
them. 

A  right  result,  at  this  time,  will  be  worth  more  to  the  world  than  ten 
times  the  men,  and  ten  times  the  money.  The  evidence  reaching  us 
from  the  country,  leaves  no  doubt,  that  the  material  for  the  work  is 
abundant ;  and  that  it  needs  only  the  hand  of  legislation  to  give  it  legal 
sanction,  and  the  hand  of  the  Executive  to  give  it  practical  shape  and 
efficiency.  One  of  the  greatest  perplexities  of  the  government  is  to  avoid 
receiving  troops  faster  than  it  can  provide  for  them.  In  a  word,  the 
people  will  save  their  government,  if  the  government  itself,  will  do  its 
part,  only  indifferently  well. 

It  might  seem,  at  first  thought,  to  be  of  little  difference  whether  the 
present  movement  at  the  South  be  called  "secession"  or  "rebellion." 
The  movers,  however,  well  understand  the  difference.  At  the  beginning, 
they  knew  they  could  never  raise  their  treason  to  any  respectable  mag- 
nitude by  any  name  which  implies  violation  of  law.  They  knew  their 
people  possessed  as  much  of  moral  sense,  as  much  of  devotion  to  law  and 
order,  and  as  much  pride  in,  and  reverence  for,  the  history  and  govern- 
ment of  their  common  country,  as  any  other  civilized  and  patriotic 


22 

people.  They  knew  they  could  make  no  advancement  directly  m  the 
teeth  of  these  strong  and  noble  sentiments.  Accordingly  they  com- 
menced by  an  insidious  debauching  of  the  public  mind.  They  invented 
an  ingenious  sophism,  which,  if  conceded,  was  followed  by  perfectly 
logical  steps,  through  all  the  incidents,  to  the  complete  destruction  of  the 
Union.  The  sophism  itself  is,  that  any  State  of  the  Union  may,  con- 
sistently with  the  national  Constitution,  and  therefore  laujtdly,  and 
peacefully,  withdraw  from  the  Union,  without  the  consent  of  the  Union, 
or  of  any  other  State.  The  Uttle  disguise  that  the  supposed  right  is  to  be 
exercised  only  for  just  cause,  themselves  to  be  the  sole  judge  of  its  justice, 
is  too  thin  to  merit  any  notice. 

With  rebellion  thus  sugar-coated,  they  have  been  drugging  the  public 
mind  of  their  section  for  more  than  thirty  years ;  and  until  at  length  they 
have  brought  many  good  men  to  a  willingness  to  take  up  arms  against  the 
government  the  day  after  some  assemblage  of  men  have  enacted  the 
farcical  pretence  of  taking  their  State  out  of  the  Union,  who  could  have 
been  brought  to  no  such  thing  the  day  before. 

This  sophism  derives  much,  perhaps  the  whole,  of  its  currency  from 
the  assumption  that  there  is  some  omnipotent  and  sacred  supremacy 
pertaining  to  a  State — to  each  State  of  our  Federal  Union.  Our  States 
have  neither  more,  nor  less  power,  than  that  reser\-ed  to  them,  in  the 
Union,  by  the  Constitution — no  one  of  them  ever  having  been  a  State  out 
of  the  Union.  The  original  ones  passed  into  the  Union  even  before  they 
cast  ofF  their  British  colonial  dependence;  and  the  new  ones  each  came 
into  the  Union  directly  from  a  condition  of  dependence,  excepting  Texas. 
And  even  Texas,  in  its  temporary  independence,  was  never  designated  a 
State.  The  new  ones  only  took  the  designation  of  States,  on  coming  into 
the  Union,  while  that  name  was  first  adopted  for  the  old  ones,  in  and  by 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Therein  the  "United  Colonies"  were 
declared  to  be  "free  and  independent  States;"  but,  even  then,  the  object 
plainly  was  not  to  declare  their  independence  of  07ie  another,  or  of  the 
Union,  but  directly  the  contrary,  as  their  mutual  pledge,  and  their  mutual 
action,  before,  at  the  time,  and  afterwards,  abundantly  show.  The 
express  plighting  of  faith,  by  each  and  all  of  the  original  thirteen,  in  the 
Articles  of  Confederation,  two  j'ears  later,  that  the  Union  shall  be  per- 
petual, is  most  conclusive.  Having  never  been  States,  either  in  substance 
or  in  name,  outside  of  the  Union,  whence  this  magical  omnipotence  of 
"State  rights,"  asserting  a  claim  of  power  to  lawfully  destroy  the  Union 
itself?  Much  is  said  about  the  "sovereignty"  of  the  States;  but  the 
word,  even,  is  not  in  the  national  Constitution;  nor,  as  is  believed,  in  any 
of  the  State  constitutions.  What  is  a  "sovereignty,"  in  the  political 
sense  of  the  term?  Would  it  be  far  wrong  to  define  it,  "A  political  com- 
munity, without  a  political  superior?"  Tested  by  this,  no  one  of  our 
States,  except  Texas,  ever  was  a  sovereignty.  And  even  Texas  gave  up 
the  character  on  coming  into  the  Union;  by  which  act,  she  acknowledged 


23 

the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  the  laws  and  treaties  of  the 
United  States  made  in  pursuance  of  the  Constitution,  to  be,  for  her,  the 
supreme  law  of  the  land.  The  States  have  their  status  in  the  Union,  and 
they  have  no  other  legal  status.  If  they  break  from  this,  they  can  only 
do  so  against  law,  and  by  revolution.  The  Uniofl,  and  not  themselves 
separately,  procured  their  independence  and  their  liberty.  By  conquest, 
or  purchase,  the  Union  gave  each  of  them,  whatever  of  independence  and 
liberty  it  has.  The  Union  is  older  than  any  of  the  States,  and,  in  fact,  it 
created  them  as  States.  Originally  some  dependent  colonies  made  the 
Union,  and,  in  turn,  the  Union  threw  off  their  old  dependence  for  them, 
and  made  them  States,  such  as  they  are.  Not  one  of  them  ever  had  a 
State  constitution  independent  of  the  Union.  Of  course,  it  is  not  for- 
gotten that  all  the  new  States  framed  their  constitutions  before  they 
entered  the  Union;  nevertheless,  dependent  upon,  and  preparatory  to, 
coming  into  the  Union. 

Unquestionably  the  States  have  the  powers  and  rights  reserved  to 
them  in  and  by  the  national  Constitution;  but  among  these,  surely,  are 
not  included  all  conceivable  powers,  however  mischievous  or  destructive; 
but,  at  most,  such  only  as  were  known  in  the  world,  at  the  time,  as 
governmental  powers;  and  certainly  a  power  to  destroy  the  government 
itself  had  never  been  known  as  a  governmental — as  a  merely  adminis- 
trative power.  This  relative  matter  of  national  power  and  State  rights, 
as  a  principle,  is  no  other  than  the  principle  of  generality  and  locality. 
Whatever  concerns  the  whole,  should  be  confided  to  the  whole — to  the 
general  government;  while  whatever  concerns  only  the  State,  should  be 
left  exclusively  to  the  State.  This  is  all  there  is  of  original  principle 
about  it.  Whether  the  national  Constitution,  in  defining  boundaries 
between  the  two,  has  applied  the  principle  wnth  exact  accuracy,  is  not 
to  be  questioned.     We  are  all  bound  by  that  defining,  without  question. 

What  is  now  combatted,  is  the  position  that  secession  is  consistent  with 
the  Constitution — is  lawful,  and  peaceful.  It  is  not  contended  that  there 
is  any  express  law  for  it;  and  nothing  should  ever  be  implied  as  law, 
which  leads  to  unjust  or  absurd  consequences.  The  nation  purchased, 
with  money,  the  countries  out  of  which  several  of  these  States  were 
formed.  Is  it  just  that  they  shall  go  off  without  leave,  and  without 
refunding?  The  nation  paid  very  large  sums,  (in  the  aggregate,  I  believe 
nearly  a  hundred  millions,)  to  relieve  Florida  of  the  aboriginal  tribes. 
Is  it  just  that  she  shall  now  be  off  without  consent,  or  without  making 
any  return?  The  nation  is  now  in  debt  for  money  applied  to  the  benefit 
of  these  so-called  seceding  States,  in  common  with  the  rest.  Is  it  just, 
either  that  creditors  shall  go  unpaid,  or  the  remaining  States  pay  the 
whole?  A  part  of  the  present  national  debt  was  contracted  to  pay  the 
old  debts  of  Texas.  Is  it  just  that  she  shall  leave,  and  pay  no  part  of 
this  herself? 


24 

Again,  if  one  State  may  secede,  so  may  another;  and  when  all  shall 
have  seceded,  none  is  left  to  pay  the  debts.  Is  this  quite  just  to  cred- 
itors? Did  we  notify  them  of  this  sage  view  of  ours  when  we  borrowed 
their  money?  If  we  now  recognize  this  doctrine  by  allowing  the  seceders 
to  go  in  peace,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  we  can  do  if  others  choose  to 
go,  or  to  extort  terms  upon  which  they  will  promise  to  remain. 

The  seceders  insist  that  our  Constitution  admits  of  secession.  They 
have  assumed  to  make  a  national  constitution  of  their  o^vn,  in  which, 
of  necessity,  they  have  either  discarded  or  retained  the  right  of  secession, 
as,  they  insist,  it  exists  in  ours.  If  they  have  discarded  it,  they  thereby 
admit  that,  on  principle,  it  ought  not  to  be  in  ours.  If  they  have  retained 
it,  by  their  own  construction  of  ours  they  show  that  to  be  consistent  they 
must  secede  from  one  another,  whenever  they  shall  find  it  the  easiest 
wav  of  settHng  their  debts,  or  eflfecting  any  other  selfish  or  unjust  object. 
The  principle  itself  is  one  of  disintegration,  and  upon  which  no  govern- 
ment can  possibly  endure. 

If  all  the  States,  save  one,  should  assert  the  power  to  drive  that  one 
out  of  the  Union,  it  is  presumed  the  whole  class  of  seceder  politicians 
would  at  once  deny  the  power,  and  denounce  the  act  as  the  greatest 
outrage  upon  State  rights.  But  suppose  that  precisely  the  same  act, 
instead  of  being  called  "driving  the  one  out,"  should  be  called  "the 
seceding  of  the  others  from  that  one,"  it  would  be  exactly  what  the 
seceders  claim  to  do;  unless,  indeed,  they  make  the  point,  that  the  one, 
because  it  is  a  minority,  may  rightfully  do  what  the  others,  because  they 
are  a  majority,  may  not  rightfully  do.  These  politicians  are  subtle  and 
profound  on  the  rights  of  minorities.  They  are  not  partial  to  that  power 
which  made  the  Constitution,  and  speaks  from  the  preamble,  calling 
itself  "We,  the  People." 

It  may  well  be  questioned  whether  there  is,  to-day,  a  majority  of  the 
legally  qualified  voters  of  any  State,  except  perhaps  South  Carolina,  in 
favor  of  disunion.  There  is  much  reason  to  believe  that  the  Union  men 
are  the  majority  in  many,  if  not  in  every  other  one,  of  the  so-called 
seceded  States.  The  contrary  has  not  been  demonstrated  in  any  one  of 
them.  It  is  ventured  to  affirm  this,  even  of  Virginia  and  Tennessee;  for 
the  result  of  an  election,  held  in  military  camps,  where  the  bayonets  are 
all  on  one  side  of  the  question  voted  upon,  can  scarcely  be  considered  as 
demonstrating  popular  sentiment.  At  such  an  election  all  that  large 
class  who  are,  at  once,  for  the  Union,  and  against  coercion,  would  be 
coerced  to  vote  against  the  Union. 

It  may  be  affirmed,  \vithout  extravagance,  that  the  free  institutions 
we  enjoy  have  developed  the  powers,  and  improved  the  condition,  of 
our  whole  people,  beyond  any  example  in  the  world.  Of  this  we  now 
have  a  striking,  and  an  impressive  illustration.  So  large  an  army  as  the 
government  has  now  on  foot,  was  never  before  known,  without  a  soldier 
in  it,  but  who  had  taken  his  place  there  of  his  own  free  choice.     But  more 


25 

than  this:  there  are  many  single  regiments  whose  members,  one  and 
another,  possess  full  practical  knowledge  of  all  the  arts,  sciences,  profes- 
sions, and  whatever  else,  whether  useful  or  elegant  is  known  in  the  world; 
and  there  is  scarcely  one  from  which  there  could  not  be  selected  a  Presi- 
dent, a  Cabinet,  a  Congress,  and  perhaps  a  Court,  abundantly  competent 
to  administer  the  government  itself!  Nor  do  I  say  this  is  not  true,  also 
in  the  army  of  our  late  friends,  now  adversaries  in  this  contest;  but  if 
it  is,  so  much  better  the  reason  why  the  government,  which  has  conferred 
such  benefits  on  both  them  and  us  should  not  be  broken  up.  Whoever, 
in  any  section,  proposes  to  abandon  such  a  government,  would  do  well  to 
consider,  in  deference  to  what  principle  it  is  that  he  does  it — what  better 
he  is  likely  to  get  in  its  stead — whether  the  substitute  will  give,  or  be 
intended  to  give,  so  much  of  good  to  the  people.  There  are  some  fore- 
shadowings  on  this  subject.  Our  adversaries  have  adopted  some  declara- 
tions of  independence,  in  which,  unlike  the  good  old  one,  penned  by  Jef- 
ferson, they  omit  the  words  "all  men  are  created  equal."  Why?  They 
have  adopted  a  temporary  national  constitution,  in  the  preamble  of  which, 
unUke  our  good  old  one,  signed  by  Washington,  they  omit  "We,  the 
people,"  and  substitute  "We,  the  deputies  of  the  sovereign  and  inde- 
pendent States."  Why?  Why  this  dehberate  pressing  out  of  view,  the 
rights  of  men,  and  the  authority  of  the  people? 

This  is  essentially  a  People's  contest.  On  the  side  of  the  Union,  it  is  a 
struggle  for  maintaining  in  the  world,  that  form  and  substance  of  gov- 
ernment, whose  leading  object  is,  to  elevate  the  condition  of  men — to 
lift  artificial  weights  from  all  shoulders;  to  clear  the  paths  of  laudable 
pursuit  for  all ;  to  afford  all  an  unfettered  start,  and  a  fair  chance  in  the 
race  of  life.  Yielding  to  partial  and  temporary  departures,  from  neces- 
sity, this  is  the  leading  object  of  the  government  for  whose  existence  we 
contend. 

I  am  most  happy  to  believe  that  the  plain  people  understand  and  ap- 
preciate this.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  that  while  in  this,  the  government's 
hour  of  trial,  large  numbers  of  those  in  the  army  and  navy  who  have 
been  favored  with  the  offices,  have  resigned,  and  proved  false  to  the  hand 
which  had  pampered  them,  not  one  common  soldier,  or  common  sailor,  is 
known  to  have  deserted  his  flag. 

Great  honor  is  due  to  those  officers  who  remained  true,  despite  the  ex- 
ample of  their  treacherous  associates;  but  the  greatest  honor,  and  most 
important  fact  of  all,  is  the  unanimous  firmness  of  the  common  soldiers 
and  common  sailors.  To  the  last  man,  so  far  as  known,  they  have  suc- 
cessfully resisted  the  traitorous  efforts  of  those  whose  commands,  but  an 
hour  before,  they  obeyed  as  absolute  law.  This  is  the  patriotic  instinct 
of  plain  people.  They  understand,  without  an  argument,  that  the  de- 
stroying the  government  which  was  made  by  Washington  means  no  good 
to  them. 


26 

Our  popular  government  has  often  been  called  an  experiment.  Two 
points  in  it  our  people  have  already  settled — the  successful  establishing 
and  the  successful  administering  of  it.  One  still  remains — its  successful 
maintename  against  a  formidable  internal  attempt  to  overthrow  it. 
It  is  now  for  them  to  demonstrate  to  the  world,  that  those  who 
can  fairly  carry  an  election,  can  also  suppress  a  rebellion;  that  ballots  are 
the  rightful  and  peaceful  successors  of  bullets;  and  that  when  ballots 
have  fairly  and  constitutionally  decided,  there  can  be  no  successful  ap- 
peal back  to  bullets;  that  there  can  be  no  successful  appeal  except  to 
ballots  themselves,  at  succeeding  elections.  Such  will  be  a  great  lesson 
of  peace;  teaching  men  that  what  they  cannot  take  by  an  election, 
neither  can  they  take  it  by  a  war;  teaching  all  the  folly  of  being  the  be- 
ginners of  a  war. 

Lest  there  be  some  uneasiness  in  the  minds  of  candid  men,  as  to  what 
is  to  be  the  course  of  the  government,  towards  the  southern  States,  after 
the  rebellion  shall  have  been  suppressed,  the  Executive  deems  it  proper 
to  say,  it  will  be  his  purpose  then,  as  ever,  to  be  guided  by  the  Constitu- 
tion and  the  laws;  and  that  he  probably  will  have  no  different  under- 
standing of  the  powers  and  duties  of  the  federal  government  relatively  to 
the  rights  of  the  States  and  the  people,  under  the  Constitution,  than  that 
expressed  in  the  inaugural  address: 

He  desires  to  preserve  the  government,  that  it  may  be  administered 
for  all,  as  it  was  administered  by  the  men  who  made  it.  Loyal  citizens 
everywhere,  have  the  right  to  claim  this  of  their  government;  and  the 
government  has  no  right  to  withhold,  or  neglect  it.  It  is  not  perceived 
that,  in  giving  it,  there  is  any  coercion,  any  conquest,  or  any  subjugation, 
in  any  just  sense  of  those  terms.  :t^ 

The  Constitution  provides,  and  all  the  States  have  accepted  the 
provision,  that  "The  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every  State  in 
this  Union  a  republican  form  of  government."  But,  if  a  State  may 
lawfully  go  out  of  the  Union,  having  done  so,  it  may  also  discard  the 
repubhcan  form  of  government;  so  that  to  prevent  its  going  out  is  an 
indispensable  means,  to  the  end,  of  maintaining  the  guaranty  men- 
tioned; and  when  an  end  is  lawful  and  obligatory,  the  indispensable 
means  to  it,  are  also  lawful  and  obligatory. 

It  was  with  the  deepest  regret  that  the  Executive  found  the  duty 
of  employing  the  war-power,  in  defence  of  the  government,  forced  upon 
him.  He  could  but  perform  this  duty,  or  surrender  the  existence  of 
the  government.  No  compromise,  by  pubUc  servants,  could,  in  this 
case,  be  a  cure;  not  that  compromises  are  not  often  proper,  but  that 
no  popular  government  can  long  survive  a  marked  precedent,  that  those 
who  carry  an  election,  can  only  save  the  government  from  immediate 
destruction,  by  giving  up  the  main  point,  upon  which,  the  people  gave 
the  election.  The  people  themselves,  and  not  their  servants,  can  safely 
reverse  their  own  deliberate  decisions. 


27 

As  a  private  citizen,  the^Executive  could  not  have  consented  that  these 
institutions  shall  perish;  much  less  could  he,  in  betrayal  of  so  vast,  and 
so  sacred  a  trust,  as  these  free  people  had  confided  to  him.  He  felt  that  he 
had  no  moral  right  to  shrink,  nor  even  to  count  the  chances  of  his  own 
life,  in  what  might  follow.  In  full  view  of  his  great  responsibility,  he 
has,  so  far,  done  what  he  has  deemed  his  duty.  You  will  now,  accord- 
ing to  your  own  judgment,  perform  yours.  He  sincerely  hopes  that 
your  views,  and  your  action,  may  so  accord  with  his,  as  to  assure  all 
faithful  citizens,  who  have  been  disturbed  in  their  rights,  of  a  certain, 
and  speedy  restoration  to  them,  under  the  Constitution  and  the  laws. 

And  having  thus  chosen  our  course,  without  guile,  and  with  ^pure 
purpose,  let  us  renew  our  trust  in  God,  and  go  forward  without  fear, 
and  with  manly  hearts. 

July  4,  1861. 


BY  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 
OF  AMERICA         s«r         s^         A  PROCLAMATION 


PROCLAMATION. 

WHEREAS,  on  the  twenty-second  day  of  September,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord   one    thousand    eight  hundred    and    sixty-two, 
a  proclamation  was  issued  by  the  President  of   the  United 
States,  containing  among  other  things,  the  following,  to  wit : 

"That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred and  sixty-three,  all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  any  State  or  designated  part 
of  a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States, 
shall  be  then,  thenceforward,  and  forever  free;  and  the  Executive  Government  of  the 
United  States,  including  the  military  and  naval  authority  thereof,  will  recognize  and 
maintain  the  freedom  of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress  such  per- 
sons, or  any  of  them,  in  any  efforts  they  may  make  for  their  actual  freedom. 

"That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of  January  aforesaid,  by  proclamation, 
designate  the  States  and  parts  of  States,  if  any,  in  which  the  people  thereof,  respec- 
tively, shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States;  and  the  fact  that  any  State, 
or  the  people  thereof,  shall  on  that  day  be,  in  good  faith,  represented  in  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  by  members  chosen  thereto  at  elections  wherein  a  majority  of  the 
qualified  voters  of  such  State  shall  have  participated,  shall,  in  the  absence  of  strong 
countervailing  testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence  that  such  State,  and  the 
people  thereof,  are  not  then  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States." 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States, 
by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  as  Commander-in-Chief,  of  the 
Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States  in  time  of  actual  armed  rebellion 
against  the  authority  and  government  of  the  United  States,  and  as  a  fit 
and  necessary  war  measure  for  suppressing  said  rebellion,  do,  on  this 
first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  sixty-three,  and  in  accordance  with  my  purpose  so  to  do  publicly 
proclaimed  for  the  full  period  of  one  hundred  days,  from  the  day  first 
above  mentioned,  order  and  designate  as  the  States  and  parts  of  States 
wherein  the  people  thereof  respectively,  are  this  day  in  rebellion  against 
the  United  States,  the  following,  to  wit: 

Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana,  (except  the  Parishes  of  St.  Bernard,  Pla- 
quemines, Jefferson,  St.  John,  St.  Charles,  St.  James  Ascension,  Assump- 
tion, Terrebonne,  Lafourche,  St.  Mary,  St.  Martin,  and  Orleans,  includ- 
ing the  City  of  New  Orleans)  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Florida,  Georgia, 
South  Carolina,  North  Carolina,  and  Virginia,  (except  the  forty-eight 
counties  designated  as  West  Virginia,  and  also  the  counties  of  Berk- 
ley, Accomac,  Northampton,  Elizabeth  City,  York,  Princess  Ann,  and 

(31) 


32 

Norfolk,  including  the  cities  of  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth,  and  which 
excepted  parts  are,  for  the  present,  left  precisely  as  if  this  proclamation 
were  not  issued. 

And  by  virtue  of  the  power,  and  for  the  purpose  aforesaid,  I  do  order 
and  declare  that  all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  said  designated  States, 
and  parts  of  States,  are,  and  henceforward  shall  be  free;  and  that  the 
Executive  government  of  the  United  States,  including  the  mihtary  and 
naval  authorities  thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of 
said  persons. 

And  I  hereby  enjoin  upon  the  people  so  declared  to  be  free  to  abstain 
from  all  violence,  unless  in  necessary  self-defense;  and  I  recommend  to 
them  that,  in  all  cases  when  allowed,  they  labor  faithfully  for  reasonable 
wages. 

And  I  further  declare  and  make  known,  that  such  persons  of  suitable 
condition,  will  be  received  into  the  armed  service  of  the  United  States  to 
garrison  forts,  positions,  stations,  and  other  places,  and  to  man  vessels  of 
all  sorts  in  said  service. 

And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of  justice,  warranted 
by  the  Constitution,  upon  military  necessity,  I  invoke  the  considerate 
judgment  of  mankind,  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the 
seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington,  this  first  day  of  January, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 

'•^  ^^'^  and  sLxty  three,  and  of  the  Independence  of  the  United 

States  of  America  the  eighty-seventh. 


By  the  President: 

William  H.  Seward, 

Secretary  of  State. 

[No.  95-] 


„yA^lc^rtc<^i^. 


ADDRESS  AT  DEDICATION  OF  GETTYSBURG 
NATIONAL  CEMETERY  ^  NOVEMBER  19,  1863 


LINCOLN   AT   GETTYSBURG. 

FOUR  score  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers  brought  forth  upon 
this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  liberty,  and  dedicated 
to  the  proposition  that  all  men  are  created  equal. 

Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war,  testing  whether  that 
nation,  or  any  nation  so  conceived  and  dedicated,  can  long  endure. 
We  are  met  on  the  great  battlefield  of  that  war.  We  have  come  to 
dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field  as  a  final  resting  place  for  those  who  here 
gave  their  lives  that  that  nation  might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting 
and  proper  that  we  should  do  this. 

But  in  a  large  sense  we  can  not  dedicate,  we  can  not  consecrate,  we 
can  not  hallow,  this  ground.  The  brave  men,  hving  and  dead,  who 
struggled  here,  have  consecrated  it  far  above  our  poor  power  to  add  or 
detract.  The  world  will  little  note  nor  long  remember  what  we  say 
here,  but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did.  It  is  for  us,  the  living, 
rather,  to  be  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us — that 
from  these  honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for 
which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion;  that  we  here  highly 
resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain;  that  this  nation, 
under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom,  and  that  government  of 
the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth. 

(35) 


SECOND  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  s«r  MARCH  4,  1865 

See   Senate  Journal,  Thirty-eighth    Congress,  second   session,  p.  346 


SECOND  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

FELLOW  Countrymen  :  At  this  second  appearing  to  take  the  oath 
of  the  presidential  office,  there  is  less  occasion  for  an  extended 
address  than  there  was  at  the  first.  Then,  a  statement  some- 
what in  detail,  of  a  course  to  be  pursued  seemed  fitting  and 
proper.  Now,  at  the  expiration  of  four  years,  during  which  public  dec- 
larations have  been  constantly  called  forth  on  every  point  and  phase  of 
the  great  contest  which  still  absorbs  the  attention  and  engrosses  the  ener- 
gies of  the  nation,  little  that  is  new  could  be  presented.  The  progress  of 
our  arras,  upon  which  all  else  chiefly  depends,  is  as  well  known  to  the  pub- 
lic as  to  myself;  and  it  is,  I  trust,  reasonably  satisfactory  and  encouraging 
to  all.  With  high  hope  for  the  future,  no  prediction  in  regard  to  it  is 
ventured. 

On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  years  ago,  all  thoughts  were 
anxiously  directed  to  an  impending  civil  war.  All  dreaded  it — all  sought 
to  avert  it.  While  the  inaugural  address  was  being  delivered  from  this 
place,  devoted  altogether  to  saving  the  Union  without  war,  insurgent 
agents  were  in  the  city  seeking  to  destroy  it  without  war — seeking  to 
dissolve  the  Union,  and  divide  effects,  by  negotiation.  Both  parties 
deprecated  war;  but  one  of  them  would  make  war  rather  than  let  the 
nation  survive;  and  the  other  would  accept  war  rather  than  let  it  per- 
ish.    And  the  war  came. 

One-eighth  of  the  whole  population  were  colored  slaves,  not  distributed 
generally  over  the  Union,  but  localized  in  the  southern  part  of  it.  These 
slaves  constituted  a  peculiar  and  powerful  interest.  All  knew  that  this 
interest  was,  somehow,  the  cause  of  the  war.  To  strengthen,  perpetuate, 
and  extend  this  interest  was  the  object  for  which  the  insurgents  would 
rend  the  Union,  even  by  war;  while  the  Government  claimed  no  right 
to  do  more  than  to  restrict  the  territorial  enlargement  of  it.  Neither 
party  expected  for  the  war  the  magnitude  or  the  duration  which  it  has 
already  attained.  Neither  anticipated  that  the  cause  of  the  conflict 
might  cease  with,  or  even  before  the  conflict  itself  should  cease.  Each 
looked  for  an  easier  triumph,  and  a  result  less  fundamental  and  astound- 
ing. Both  read  the  same  Bible,  and  pray  to  the  same  God;  and  each 
invokes  His  aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem  strange  that  any  men 
should  care  to  ask  a  just  God's  assistant  in  wringing  their  bread  from 
the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces;  but  let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not 
judged.     The  prayers  of  both  could  not  be  answered — that  of  neither 

(39) 


40 

has  been  answered  fully.  The  Almighty  has  His  own  purposes.  "Woe 
unto  the  world  because  of  ofifences!  for  it  must  needs  be  that  offences 
come;  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  offence  cometh."  If  we  shall 
suppose  that  American  slavery  is  one  of  those  offences  which,  in  the 
providence  of  God,  must  needs  come,  but  which,  having  continued 
through  His  appointed  time,  He  now  wills  to  remove,  and  that  He  gives 
to  both  North  and  South  this  terrible  war,  as  the  woe  due  to  those  by 
whom  the  offence  came,  shall  we  discern  therein  any  departure  from 
those  divine  attributes  which  the  believers  in  a  living  God  always  ascribe 
to  Him?  Fondly  do  we  hope — fervently  do  we  pray — that  this  mighty 
scourge  of  w^r  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it  con- 
tinue until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondsman's  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood 
drawn  \\-ith  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn  with  the  sword,  as 
was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  "The  judg- 
ments of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether." 

With  malice  toward  none;  with  charity  for  all;  with  firmness  in  the 
right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work 
we  are  in;  to  bind  up  thejiation's  wounds;  to  care  for  him  who  shall 
have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow,  and  his  orphan — to  do  all 
which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves, 
and  with  all  nations. 


sT 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOISURBANA 
973  7L63K1909  cOO! 

FIRST  AND  SECOND  INAUGURAL  ADDRESSES  WAS 


3  0112  031 


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